Knitted fabric



' March 17, 1942.

2 v .7 v R 1 a. a 4 a 2 P, w. l t G N w E 3 M H m R h 0 V0 0 w M 0 n NaTf T S M ,C IS. T s 9 E u i m5/////%///////////f z/// /////////////w wummum 9 a r a s 4 s 2/ 2 I 4 3 Z 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 Z I v G G H Patented Mar. 17, 1942 NITED STATES ATE N'l orricr Western Electric Company, Incorporated, New York, N. Y., a corporationof New York Application October t, 1938, Serial No. 233,538

6 Claims.

This invention relates to knitted fabrics and more particularly to knitted-fabric coverings for electrical conductors.

An object of the invention is to provide effective knitted fabrics which can be readily made.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention a knitted tubular covering is made, having an odd or even number of threads, in which the circumferential length of a loop of the fabric is not integrally divisible into the circumference of the tubular fabric structure, whereby a single interknitted covering is formed.

A complete understanding of the invention may be had by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a plan development of a tubular knitted fabric;

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the needle and cam arrangement of a knitting macylinder by an outer. sleeve I! which forms a part of the needle cylinder and rotates therewith. The sleeve H is secured in position on the needle cylinder by means of a set screw 30.

The upper, end of the needle cylinder has a cylinder head l8 provided with an upwardly extending tubular portion l9 through which the core to be covered passes downwardly. This cylinder head I8 is adjustable up or down with respect to the cylinder by means of the lock nuts 20.

The needles I6 are provided with needlebutts 2! which may be formed as a sector of a gear and be provided with teeth. The butts 2| extend radially inward through slots in the needle cylinder and are engaged by an oscillating cam ring 22 which is annularly'stationary with 're- Fig. is a plan development of another modi fied form of tubular knitted fabric;

Fig. 6 is a schematic'diagram showing the needle and cam arrangement of a knitting maspect to the needle cylinder; that is, the ring 22- does not rotate relative to the cylinder. The rotation of the cam ring 22 relative to the cylinder is prevented by a pin 23 'which extends into a slot 24 in the cylinder wall. The cam ring 22 is oscillated through a shaft 25 which is journaled in a ball bearing 26 mounted on the frame 6, a pair of ball bearings 21 and '28, disposed between the shaft and the lower inner wall of. the needle cylinder, and a ball bearing 29 disposed between the upper end of shaft 25 and the cylinder head iii. The shaft 25 is slidable Fig. 9 is a'fragmentary vertical section of a In practising the invention it is necessary to use a knitting machine in which both the needle cylinder and the operating mechanism for the needles, such as a cam, are rotatable relative to the thread supplies. A machine ofthis type'is disclosed in the copending application of S. E. Brillhart, Serial No. 218,330, filed'July 9, 1938. Only'enough of this machine is herein disclosed in Fig. 9 to illustrate the present invention. Referring now more in detail to Fig. 9, a stationary base 6 is shown which is provided with a bearing l3 in which a needle cylinder I4 is rotatably supported. The needlecylinder is provided with a plurality of longitudinal slots IS in its outerperiphery in which the needles l6 are vertically in the inner ball race of ball bearing 29 in order to permit vertical adjustment of the cylin der head l8, as pointed out above. Mounted'on the upper end of shaft 25 is a collar 3| having a cam 32 formingan inner ball race mounted thereon in such a manner that the axis of the ball race is at an angle to the axis of the shaft. This ball race acts-as a cam or driver for cam. ring 22.

A second cam 33 is similarly mounted on the shaft, and the axis,of ball race in cam. 33 extends also at an angle to the axis of the shaft 25 but in the'opposite direction from the axis of cam 32. Cam 33 drives an outercam. ring 34 similar to cam ring 22,and the rotational? cam ring 34 relative to the cylinder is prevented by a pin 35 extending into a slot 36 in the cylinder wall. One, two or more cams may be used.

It is desirable in covering an electric conductor to have the courses of loops extend parallel to the axis of the conductor, which requires that the thread supplies be'stationary, and therefore the needle cylinder is rotated.

reciprocable. The needles are held in the needle able means, not shown. On this shaft is a gear and Co.

a second gear II also mounted on shaft 31 en-.

gages an annular gear 42 on the needle cylinder.

Thethread for the knitting operation is supplied from a plurality of stationary cops (not shown) spaced about the knitting head.

Therelative speeds of the needle cylinder and the cam shaft will depend upon the number of thread supplies, the number of needles in the needle cylinder, the number of cams, the disposition of the needles on the cams and the pattern of the knitted structure to be made.

In making the pattern illustrated in Fig. 1, five thread supplies are provided, the threads from which pass through thread guides (not shown) spaced equidistantly about the upper end of the needle cylinder to form five courses numbered I to in Fig. 1. Each loop in this pattern extends from one course, floats across the adjacent course and terminates in the following course. The ordinate numbers in Fig. 1 running from I to It indicate needles and looking at needle #I in the lower lefthand corner of Fig. 1, it will be seen that this needle picks up thread I, floats a loop across thread '2 and terminates on thread 3, k

where the needle picks up thread 3 and carries it to thread 5, whereupon it picks up thread 5 and instead of terminating the loop at thread I, as in the previous revolution, the loop is terminated at thread 2. revolutions a needle will operate on each of the five thread supplies even though it engages only every other thread supply. Due to this fact a single tubular fabric will be knitted about a conductor in which all of the threads are inter-..

I in Fig. 2, where CA indicates the high point of one cam and CB the high point of the other cam. Each cam actuates seven needles which are alternately spaced; that is, cam CA actuates the odd numbered needles and cam CB the even numbered needles, and the cams are driven 3 /2 times the speed of the needlecylinder in the direction shown in the figure, both needle cylinder and cams being driven in the same direction.

Fig. 3 represents a different pattern in which eight thread supplies and fifteen needles are used. Looking at needle I in the lower lefthand corner of the figure, it will be seen that needle I picks up thread I, floats across courses 2 and 3 and terminates the loop in course 4 where it picks up thread 4, carrying thread 4 to course I where it picks up thread I, andthen instead of again picking up thread I, it picks up thread-2. Thus, it will be seen that, in the course of three revolutions every needle will pick up each'of the threads, thereby forming a single tubular covering over a conductor in which all of the threads are interknitted. Theneedle and cam arrangement for making this pattern is shown in Fig. 4 which indicates that three cams are used: CA, CB

CA actuating needles I, 4, I, I0 and I3; cam Ce actuating needles 2, 5, 8, II and I4; and cam Cc actuating needles 3, 6, 9, I2 and I5. The pattern Thus in the course of two- Each cam actuates five needles; cam

of Fig. 3 will then be made when the needle cylinder is rotated at the rate of three revolutions irregularly on the base line of the loops.

per second in the direction indicated and the cams are rotated in the opposite direction at the rate of five revolutions per second. These speeds are, of course, merely relative and to operate the machine it is necessary only to maintain the ratio of these speeds.

Fig. 5 illustratesanother pattern in which five thread supplies and fourteen needles are used. It will be noted that in Fig. 1 the bight ends of the loops fall in pairs on the base line of a course, whereas in Fig. 5 the bight ends of the loops fall However, it will be noted that in spite of the fact that the loops terminate in various sequences on the base line of a course, the longitudinal spacing of the threads is substantially uniform. This pattern may be made by a needle and cam arrangement as shown in Fig. 6, wherein a machine is diagrammatically illustrated as having three cams, CA, CB and Co. Cam CA actuates seven needles, namely, needles IA, 3A, 5A, 1A, 9A, A, and I3A. Cam CB, however, actuates only three needles, namely. 2B, 6B and I013, whereas cam Cc actuates four needles, namely, needles 4c, 80, I20 and I40. The pattern of Fig. 5 will be formed when the cams are rotated at 3 /2 times the speed of the needle cylinder and in the same direction.

The pattern shown in Fig. 7 is substantially similar to that shown in Fig. 5, in that five thread supplies and fourteen needles are used, the chief difierence being that the bight ends of the loops terminate in different order on the base line of the courses. This pattern is made with the needle and cam arrangement shown in Fig. 8, which is believed to be self-explanatory in view of the description of Fig. 6. The pattern of Fig. 7 is formed when the cams are rotated at 3 /2 times the speed of the needle cylinder and in the same direction.

In making the patterns described above, a definite formula may be followed in regard to the ratio of rotation of the needle cylinder and the cams as well as for the number of needles, which is as follows: S=T/F+C, N=F S, where S is the ratio of the speed of the cam in relation to the speed of the needle cylinder, T the number of thread supplies, F the number of floats +1, C the number of cam lobes (always 1 in the disclosed embodiment of the invention), and N the number of needles per cam ring. When the cam ring rotates in the opposite direction to the needle cylinder, C becomes negative.

Applying this formula to the pattern of Fig. 1,.

T=5, F=2, C.=1; therefore S will be 3 ,-and the number of needles per cam ring (F .S')='7. Applying the formula to the pattern shown in Fig. 4, T=8, F=3, C: 1; therefore 8:5/3 and the number of needles per cam ring (FXS) =5.

It will be seen that the patterns made in accordance with this invention may have loops with one or more floats, which adds considerably to the speed of knitting, and at the same time all of the threads are interknitted to form a single covering.

ential length of a loop being not integrally divisible into the circumference of the tubular fabric, whereby all of the loops are interknitted into a single tube.

2. A tubular knitted fabric comprising interknitted courses of loops, each loop crossing a float of an adjacent course, the wales being spiral and the.loops of a wale being interknitted in every course in two convolutions of a spiral wale.

3. A tubular knitted fabric comprising interknitted courses of loops, each loop of a Wale being interknitted inevery other course, and all of the loops of a wale being interknitted with each course at some point, whereby a single interknitted tubular fabric is formed.

, 4. A tubular knitted fabric comprising interknitted courses of loops, said loops crossing a float of an adjacent loop in pairs, and the circumferential length of a loop being not integrally divisible into the circumference of the tubular fabric, whereby all of the loops are interknitted into a single covering.

5. A tubular knitted fabric comprising interknitted courses of loops, said courses being of an odd number, and eachloop crossing an odd number of floats, whereby all of the loops are inter,- knitted into a single fabric.

6. A tubular knitted fabric comprising interknitted courses of loops, said courses being of an even number, and each loop crossing an even number of floats, whereby all of the loops are interknitted into a single fabric.

CLYDE N. STOVER. 

